Robert galloway



(No Model.)

R. GALLOWAY. SPEED GEARING FOR GRAIN DRILLS.

No. 571,224. Patented Nov, 10, 1896.

I raven/i07 Zda imses:

ihvirnn STATES PATENT FFICEQ ROBERT GALLOIVAY, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

SPEED-GEARING FORGRAlN-DRILLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 571,224, dated November 10, 1896 Application filed December 26,1895. Serial No- 5'7S,302. (llo model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT GALLOWAY, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Speed-Gearing for Grain-Drills and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and to the letters of refer ence marked thereon.

This invention relates to improvements in speed-gearing for grain-drills, especially that class of machine whose movable or shifting gear bracket is pivoted on a center coincident with the center of feed-shaft, and has for its object to provide an arrangement of gearing and combination of elements whereby the lost motion which exists in the train of gearing between the axle and cup-shaft is taken up when the gearing is thrown into action, thereby securing the immediate operation of the feed-cups when the drill is started forward. Ileretofore with this class of machines the movable or shifting gear went into mesh with the driving-gear with their nonoperativesurfaces coming into contact, which tended to produce lost motion the result being that the drill travels from one to six feet before the feed-cup shaft starts to rotate, and consequently this space is not sowed at the ends of the row or at any other point where the gearing is thrown out and again brought into mesh.

In carrying my invention into practice in order to overcome this defect Ido not change or reverse the direction of rotation of the main axle or drive-shaft proper, nor change the location of the drive-shaft, but I change the location of the movable or shifting gear, whereby the movable or shifting gear always goes into mesh with the driving-gear with their operative surfaces coming into contact, which tends to prevent or take up lost motion. In other words, I mount the movable or shifting gear in such relation to the driving-gear or train of gears that when the two are brought together the tendency of such movement is to give the driving-gear or train of gears a reverse rotation and to give the shifting gear, with the train connecting it to the cup-shaft, a rotation in an advance direction. Thus the gear-teeth throughout the whole train have their operative surfaces brought into contact, and when the axle or drive-sh aft starts to rotate the whole train is simultaneously put into motion.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a simple embodiment of the invention, and in said drawings- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a train of gearing interposed between the axle and cupshaft; and Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the ad justable bracket for permitting of the interposition of the change-wheels or wheels for giving different speeds to the cup-shaft.

Like letters of reference in the several fig ures indicate the same parts.

The letter Aindicates the frame of the machine, B the hopper, and O the ordinary hoelifting roller with its connections for moving the shifting gear into and out of operative position. These connections consist of a link D, connected with a crank-shaft cl on the front side of the frame, and to which the shifting-gear link F is connected by a crank, preferably set at a quarter-turn, and so as to be on the dead-center when the gears are in mesh. Thus the three centers being in line form a deadlock which holds the geaewheels rigidly in place. Gindicates the axle or driving-shaft proper adapted to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow, and g are the sides of a bracket mounted on the axle. Embraced by the bracket is a gear-wheel II, rotating with the axle, and in one of the arms of the bracket is a gear-wheel H in mesh with the gear-wheel H.

The axle of the gear-wheel I-I projects through the side of the bracket, being squared and adapted to receive any one of a number of change-gear wheels of difierent size, such as the cl1ange gear wheel H The other arm of the bracket g is provided with abolt adapted to cooperate and be held rigidly in fixed position by a segment I, mounted rigidly on the frame A in any suitable manner, usually by a continuation of the bolt c, which holds the crank-shaft in place. This adjustment of the bracket, it will be seen, permits diiferent sizes of change-wheels to be mounted on the axle of the wheel II and held in proper position for cooperation with the shifting gear, to be now described, without disturbing in any respect the intermeshing of the gears II and II.

A gear-wheel K is mounted on or adapted to drive the cup or feed shaft, and mounted on this shaft so as to swing thereon is a shifting-gear bracket L, connected at the lower end to the shifting link F, and having journaled thereon a pair of gear-wheels K K rotating in unison and adapted to mesh, the one, K with the cup-shaft wheel K, and the other, K, with the change-wheel H The wheel K is in mesh all the while with the wheel K, and by swinging the bracket L through the medium of the shifting link the wheel K may be moved into or out of mesh with the wheel H The direction of this movementin bringing the wheels into mesh,

it will be noted, is such that the contact of the teeth as the gears are brought into mesh will tend to rotate the driving-train terminating in the wheel H backward, thus taking up any lost motion in said train and put ting it in condition to start to rotate at the same instant that the drive-shaft starts. Furthermore, it tends to rotate the shifting gear K, together with the train connecting it to the cup-shaft, in a forward direction, besides bringing the operative faces of the gear-teeth on the wheels K and II into contact. Thus throughout the train the gear-teeth of the wheels are all brought into contact and are ready to rotate the instant the drive-shaft rotates in a forward direction. In other words, the shifting and driving gears are brought together with a motion which, when the teeth come in contact, tends to rotate the wheels in a proper direction to take up all slack, the gears nearest the drive-shaft backward and the gears beyond the point of separation forward.

Obviously any preferred arrangement of operating mechanism may be employed for moving the crank-shaft, andmy invention may be used with any of the ordinary change or speed gears where a shifting or throw-out connection is employed, if so desired.

In the device illustrated in the drawings the gearing is more especially adapted for driving the feed-cups in a fertilizer-distributer such as used in connection with a graindrill, and it is perfectly obvious that the same mechanism and embodying all the essential features of the invention maybe used to great advantage for driving the cup-shaft of the seeding-machine or what is known as the seeding-shaft. In the latter case it is desirable that the speed should be somewhat different or more rapid than for driving the fertilizer-cup shaft, for which purpose it is only necessary to interpose gear-wheels of proper size to attain the desired ends or to omit the combined gear K K 2 and substitute a single gear-wheel between the gears K and 11 such change being obvious. Hence I have not deemed it necessary to illustrate the same.

lVhcre the gearing controls the fertilizershaft alone it will be readily understood that in the event of the operator desiringto withhold or shut off sowing fertilizer in passing over a fertile piece of land, and without raising the roller 0 and hoes, the lower section an of the arm M that encircles the liftingroller can be released so as to swing down by releasing the catch N and the gear thrown out of engagement by raising the arm M without interrupting the work of sowing or drilling the seed.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim-as new is 1. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted 011 the axle or drive-shaft proper and rotating with the axle in a forward direction an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, a relatively-fixed bracket, whose center is coincident with the center of axle or drive-shaft proper, the change or driving gear and the movable or shifting gear so located with relation to the driving-gear as that the operative or working surfaces of the said gears are always directly opposed to each other as they are brought into mesh, whereby lost motion is taken up; substantiallyas described.

2. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the axle or drive-shaft proper, and rotating with the axle in a forward direction, an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, a relatively-fixed bracket, and means for adjusting the same, the driving-gear, the shifting gear, the shifting-gear bracket, the shifting gear being so located with relation to the driving-gear as that their operative or work ing surfaces are directly opposed to each other as they come into mesh whereby lost motion is taken up; substantially as described.

3. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the axle or drive-shaft proper, and rotating with the axle in a forward direction an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, the change or driving gear detachably secured thereon, of the relatively-fixed bracket and means for adjusting the same, the shifting gear, the feed-shaft and the shifting bracket pivoted thereon, the shifting gear being so located with relation to the driving-gear as that as they are brought into mesh lost motion is prevented; substantially as described.

at. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the axle or drive-shaft proper and rotating with the axle in a forward direction, an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, the change or driving gear detachably secured thereon, the relatively-fixed bracket and means for adjusting the same, the shifting gear, the feed-shaft, the shifting-gear bracket pivoted thereon and means for shifting and controlling the same, the shifting gear being located with relation to the driving-gear so that their operative or working faces are directly opposed to each other as they come into mesh, whereby lost motion is taken up; substantially as described.

5. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the axle or drive-shaft proper, an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, a relatively-fixed bracket having two arms the gearoarryin g arm, and the adjusting-arm, the adjusting-segment bolted to the frame to lock the bracket in adjusted position, the changegear and the shifting gear adapted to mesh therewith; substantially as described.

6. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the axle or drive-shaft proper, an intermediate gear-wheel meshing therewith, the relatively-fixed bracket, the change or driving gear, the shifting gear, the shifting bracket, the crank-arm, and the shifting link, the shifting gear being located with relation to the driving-gear so that their operative or working faces are always directly opposed to each other as they come into mesh whereby lost motion is prevented; substantially as described.

7. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills the combination of the gear-wheel mounted on the aXle or drive-shaft proper, an intermediate gear meshing therewith, the change-gear detachably secured thereon the shifting gear, the feed-shaft and the shifting-gear bracket pivoted thereon, the crank-arm and the shifting link; substantially as described.

8. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills, the combination of the shifting gear, the driving-gear, the feed-shaft, the shifting bracket pivoted thereon, the crank-shaft, the crank mounted on said shaft, the shifting link pivotally connected at one end to said crank and at the other end to the shifting bracket,whereby when the gears are in mesh, the three centers will be in line and the gears held rigidly in place; substantially as described.

9. In a speed-gearing for grain-drills, the combination of the shifting bracket journaled on the feed-shaft, the crank-arm and the shifting link, one end of the said shifting link pivoted to the shifting bracket the other end to the crank-arm the movable or shifting gear and the change gear, substantially as described.

ROBERT GALLOWAY. Witnesses:

GEORGE A. CAMPBELL, CHARLES L. MILLER. 

